![]() Izzard borrowed from the behavior of her children and that of the kids of friends and colleagues for storylines and character traits. They are little creatures, but they’re big characters.” They’re kicking their legs and waving their arms all over the place. When they have a tantrum, they’re on the floor. We’re more subtle with the way that we act. We’re very self-aware, and toddlers aren’t very self-aware. “There’s just a lot of comedy in toddlers. So, they find a camera or a microphone, and we know what to do with them, we know how it’s going to react, and they don’t, and there’s a lot of comedy in that.” Toddlers are inherently funny, she says, “because everything is so new, every experience is new. With this package of material, they were able to pitch Sky, which had already screened the latest iteration of “Morph,” titled “The Epic Adventures of Morph.” The pay TV operator greenlit it in December 2020, and they went into production in February 2021, with the first season comprising 20 episodes of three minutes each. All of her communication with Becher was done at home on Zoom due to the pandemic lockdown. “You see it play out and you watch it, and you see if it’s going to work, and then you get a sense of what the show is,” she says. She also made LAVs (Live Action Videos), a reference video. Go develop it.’ And so, that’s what I did.”Īfter writing the scripts for the first season, Izzard put together an animatic for one episode, “Boing.” She was assisted by Will Becher as Izzard had only ever done 2D and had never tried stop-motion. They turned around and said: ‘Yeah, it’s a great idea. We can’t do it for this reason, this reason and this reason.’ But they didn’t. I remember pitching it to Merlin, Peter and Sarah, and I was so sure they were going to say to me, ‘Oh yes, we thought of that. She expected resistance to the idea of a “Morph” spinoff but was pleasantly surprised. Lucy Izzard Courtesy of Aardman Animations And that’s what I’ve had in mind for every aspect of this series.” My dad always used to say: Don’t laugh at someone, laugh with them. I thought you could do comedy with kindness. ‘Morph’ is funny - my son, now he’s older, loves it - but I wanted a different show. “Also, I totally wanted it to be different from ‘Morph.’ I didn’t want it to be about tricking each other, with an antagonist, such as Chas, coming in and making Morph’s life more difficult. “I specifically pitched a younger pre-school show because there wasn’t enough good-quality content that I wanted my one-year-old or my three-year-old to watch, and so, I wanted it to be relatable to them and their age.” Whereas “Morph” is for kids of all ages, her show is aimed at toddlers. Her pitch, delivered to Lord, who created “Morph” with Sproxton, Sarah Cox, Aardman’s executive creative director - IP development, and Merlin Crossingham, who has voiced and directed the “Morph” series since 2014, was that the show would be a cross between “Friends” and “Purple & Brown,” an Aardman show created by Rich Webber. My career is about creating something that I can enjoy with my children,” she says. A seismic change in her life, when she and her wife became the parents to two children, led to the creation of “The Very Small Creatures.” “I had a certain confidence becoming a mum, and it wasn’t just about me anymore, and not just from a financial perspective. And I feel like I’m just doing what my kids do: I play around with little characters and make up stories.”Īfter working as a freelance illustrator, animator and animation director for several years, Izzard joined Aardman in 2011 as an animator, working mainly on short films. ![]() “If I could make a career out of comedy and telling funny stories… I mean, I have to pinch myself every day. ![]() “I’m just interested in silliness, basically,” Izzard says. Izzard studied illustration at Kingston University but “kept being drawn to storyboarding, telling stories and making short films,” she tells Variety via Zoom from her home in Bristol, where her cat occasionally jumps on the call, or, more accurately, the keyboard.Īlthough Izzard had almost no technical animation training, her animated graduation film, “Tea Total,” won the BBC Three New Talent Award in 2005.Įarly influences included the surreal humor of creative geniuses such as Edward Lear, Ronald Searle and Spike Milligan, as well as British comedian and artist Vic Reeves. The “Hide & Seek” episode of “The Very Small Creatures.” Courtesy of Aardman Animations ![]()
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